I have had an Elite for a week and put ~400 miles on it. The only thing that has surprised me so far is Android Auto causing my phone battery to drain.
Although each of the three USB ports is rated at 2.5A, I am only able to draw ~1.2A from the two USB ports on the back of the console next to HDMI which is not bad - my phone can draw up to 2.3A with a Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0/3.0 spec charger, but much less with a generic one. I would be thrilled if the USB port inside the console, which is the only one with data pins available and required for Android Auto to function, could deliver that much. If my phone is connected to one of the two ports next to HDMI, it reports the power source as an AC charger and pulls in ~1.2A; if it is instead connected to the port inside the console, it reports the power ousrce as "USB" and draws no more than 500mA. With Android Auto providing navigation, a music app streaming, and the phone acting as a WiFi hotspot for passengers, my Nexus 6 loses ~12-15% battery charge while plugged in. In other words if my phone has only 30% charge left when I start, by the end of a two-hour trip the phone would be almost dead.
Why the 500mA limit? It is the maximum current allowed in USB 1.0 and 2.0 specifications, USB 3.0 increases it to 900mA. Typically an AC charger has the USB data pins on its side either shorted or connected with a resistor to present a certain voltage, so a phone knows it is not connected to a USB port on a computer and can safely draw a higher current. Initially I thought it was entirely Google's fault, because when the phone knows Android Auto is running it should be able to override the 500mA limit safely. In addition to the Motorola Nexus 6, I tried phones from two other manufacturers (Huawei Nexus 6P and Samsung Galaxy Note 4) and found the same results. After doing more research I have realized that Honda is not blameless either on this issue: in 2009 electronics manufacturers adopted Battery Charging Specification to increase the maximum draw to 1.5A on a port that is designated as a Charing Downstream Port (CDP). On my 3-year-old laptop computer all three ports are USB 3.0, one of them is CDP-compliant. When plugged into the two non-CDP USB ports, my phone still draws no more than 500mA (instead of the 900mA limit); but when using the CDP-compliant port, it draws 1.2A and reports the power source as an AC charger. In other words, the USB port in my Odyssey is not fully compliant with industry standards.
This is an annoyance for me but not a deal-breaker at the end of the day, because I can always use the on-board navigation when I have to. Had I bought an EX or EX-L thinking that I could rely on Android Auto, then I would be quite unhappy.
Although each of the three USB ports is rated at 2.5A, I am only able to draw ~1.2A from the two USB ports on the back of the console next to HDMI which is not bad - my phone can draw up to 2.3A with a Qualcomm QuickCharge 2.0/3.0 spec charger, but much less with a generic one. I would be thrilled if the USB port inside the console, which is the only one with data pins available and required for Android Auto to function, could deliver that much. If my phone is connected to one of the two ports next to HDMI, it reports the power source as an AC charger and pulls in ~1.2A; if it is instead connected to the port inside the console, it reports the power ousrce as "USB" and draws no more than 500mA. With Android Auto providing navigation, a music app streaming, and the phone acting as a WiFi hotspot for passengers, my Nexus 6 loses ~12-15% battery charge while plugged in. In other words if my phone has only 30% charge left when I start, by the end of a two-hour trip the phone would be almost dead.
Why the 500mA limit? It is the maximum current allowed in USB 1.0 and 2.0 specifications, USB 3.0 increases it to 900mA. Typically an AC charger has the USB data pins on its side either shorted or connected with a resistor to present a certain voltage, so a phone knows it is not connected to a USB port on a computer and can safely draw a higher current. Initially I thought it was entirely Google's fault, because when the phone knows Android Auto is running it should be able to override the 500mA limit safely. In addition to the Motorola Nexus 6, I tried phones from two other manufacturers (Huawei Nexus 6P and Samsung Galaxy Note 4) and found the same results. After doing more research I have realized that Honda is not blameless either on this issue: in 2009 electronics manufacturers adopted Battery Charging Specification to increase the maximum draw to 1.5A on a port that is designated as a Charing Downstream Port (CDP). On my 3-year-old laptop computer all three ports are USB 3.0, one of them is CDP-compliant. When plugged into the two non-CDP USB ports, my phone still draws no more than 500mA (instead of the 900mA limit); but when using the CDP-compliant port, it draws 1.2A and reports the power source as an AC charger. In other words, the USB port in my Odyssey is not fully compliant with industry standards.
This is an annoyance for me but not a deal-breaker at the end of the day, because I can always use the on-board navigation when I have to. Had I bought an EX or EX-L thinking that I could rely on Android Auto, then I would be quite unhappy.
When I had a Nexus 6 it could pull a higher charging current from the wireless charging pad as well, but whenever the USB port was plugged in it would not negotiate with the wireless charger at all. On the other hand Galaxy S8+ switches charging source on-the-fly, depending on which one charges faster. I am actually not a big fan of wireless charging - joking about Apple being 5 years too late to the game notwithstanding - but in this case it gives me a workaround so I am glad to have it.
